THE BIG STORIES
Eowyn roars in, the worst storm in a generation

📣 Storm Eowyn has barrelled into Scotland and will sweep across much of the country through the day. It has brought very strong winds and some rain, with 4m people in its path warned yesterday evening by the phone alert system of a risk to life and property.

• A rare red weather warning has been issued - here’s what it means.

• Police have urged people not to travel. Read their statement.

• Ireland got the first taste of the storm: the Irish Times reports winds of 174km/h (108mph) hitting County Galway, and more than 150,000 properties without power. (Irish Times)

• Scotland also faces high winds, and through some of its most densly-populated areas in the central belt, including all of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Schools and public transport have been closed down. (BBC)

• A BA flight from Las Vegas to London hitched a ride on the jet-stream whipping up Storm Eowyn, and hit a near-record speed (The Times)

📣 Plans for a National Care Service have been abandoned in the face of delays and widespread opposition. The plan was introduced by then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2021 as “the most ambitious reform since devolution” - at its heart, a centralisation of adult social care, removing responsibility from councils and creating a national agency similar to the NHS. But it faced strong opposition from councils, as well as trade unions and other parties - including, vitally, the Greens - at Holyrood.

• Why has Scotland’s National Care Service been scrapped? (BBC)

• “SNP has spent £28m of taxpayers’ money on achieving the square root of nothing” - The Scotsman

📣 The Southport attacker, Axel Rudakubana, was jailed for 52 years for murdering three girls. The 18-year-old refused to appear in the dock as he was sentenced for what the judge called a “ferocious” and “sadistic” attack. (BBC)

• The BBC explains how the attacks played out, with greater clarity possible now reporting restrictions have been lifted. (BBC)

• It emerged yesterday that Rudakubana’s parents called police four times in six months asking for their help (Guardian)

• The case was understandably hard to attend. The Sun’s Sarah Ridley said she had “never sat through such a harrowing court case.” Reporters covering the case agreed to parents’ requests not to repeat the details of their children’s injuries. (The Sun)

• The court heard from the families of two of the girls murdered, and some of the other victims of his knife attack. The BBC reports on what they told the court about the impact of Rudakubana’s crimes - it’s a difficult but very moving read. (BBC)

FROM THE WEEKLY MAGAZINES
As Trump sweeps all before him, where next for the global left (and the UK economy)?

🗣️ The New Statesman goes deep on the future of the left after Trump’s victory in the US, publishing part of a long conversation between Sandel, quoted above, and French economist Thomas Piketty. Sandel calls for a political vision that “combines populism and patriotism” - a reduction in the concentration of economic power and an emphasis on community, solidarity and mutual obligations. Piketty talks about the long movement towards greater equality globally, and the battles won along the way. “Studying these battles may be one of the best ways we have to prepare ourselves for the next steps,” he says. (The New Statesman)

• See also: The race to lead Canada’s Liberal Party hinges on handling Trump (The Economist)

🗣️ The Spectator leads on Britain becoming “a zero-industrial society”, citing Ineos’s closure of the ethanol plant at Grangemouth - and the warning of its chairman about “the extinction of our major industries” - as evidence of a “full-scale collapse” of British manufacturing, after a period of stability. It’s all part of a wider trend of the UK becoming a net debtor nation, the magazine suggests. (The Spectator)

🗣️The Economist, writing from the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, is not kind about the UK’s economy either. Chancellor Rachel Reeves was at the ski resort to highlight various reforms, attempts to boost investment and reform planning. But attendees noted the lack of a bold narrative - a “bumper sticker” pitch - and rising taxes. Doubts remain over whether Britain can hold its own amid stiff global competition for investment. (The Economist)

🗣️ Are politicians trying to undermine the Cass Review? Hannah Barnes was unimpressed by a Westminster committee looking at the safety of puberty blockers: “All it went to show is how so many politicians have failed to engage in the detail of the debate on how best to care for gender-distressed young people and how far we are, still, from settling it,” she writes. (The New Statesman)

AROUND SCOTLAND

📣 The death of a six-year-old schoolgirl in West Lothian is being treated as murder, Police Scotland have confirmed. (Daily Record)

📣 The BBC’s Director General insisted the BBC was not trying to “game a number” on the amount of TV production in Scotland when he appeared before MSPs yesterday. Tim Davie said the BBC had “a great story” to tell on its spending, as he faced close questioning on how the corporation allocates its cash. As we reported yesterday, there has been fierce criticism of the number of Scottish-based staff working on big productions being made here, including The Traitors. (PA)

📣 The Conservatives and Labour gained a council seat each in Edinburgh last night, in a double by-election in Colinton and Fairmilehead. (The Herald)

AROUND THE WORLD

🌎 Classified documents on the deaths of John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr could be declassified under an order from Donald Trump. (BBC)

🌎 Recordings of meowing cats are being used to lure Russian troops into boobytraps set by Ukrainian troops, it has been claimed. The Times calls it Apocalypse meow… (The Times)

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

💰 UK consumer confidence has sunk to its lowest level in more than a year, according to a survey out today. The findings bode ill for the UK economy, which has been slowing down rapidly since Labour came to power in July. (Bloomberg)

💰 Is Rachel Reeves putting economic growth ahead of consumer protection? The Chancellor, reports the FT, was striking some bold shapes in Davos this week as she “told an audience of global plutocrats that she wanted to make their lives easier by creating a riskier regulatory environment for UK consumers.” The chair of the Competition and Markets Authority has already gone, per this new stance: government officials intend that to be a warning to the others, the paper says. “People are holding their heads in disbelief,” says one anonymous MP. (FT)

💰 Volkswagen’s problems are well-known: now it’s leaning heavily on its tradition of close manager and worker cooperation to cut costs and solve the company’s problems. Investors are uncertain the troubled carmaker will go hard enough, fast enough. (Reuters)

SPORT

⚽️ Manchester United won the Battle of Britain at Old Trafford last night and offered their manager Ruben Amorim a little cheer, a late Bruno Fernandes winner giving the hosts all three points. But Rangers will take a lot from the performance too - going into the game, they had eight first-team regulars missing, and lost others during the match. The youthful lineup - Philippe Clement’s Babes, in Alan Pattullo’s telling - did well to come close to taking something from the game, and the much-maligned Cyriel Dessers scored a lovely equaliser that’ll be a fitting final goal should he move on this transfer window. (The Herald)

⛳️ St Andrews will welcome The Open in 2027, extending Muirfield’s wait to host the tournament. (The Scotsman)